Au'ra

I am not sure where to post this, as this is my first time posting to the forums as a whole. But I was hoping to make a request, which might be unreasonable but I know the dev's read the forums. I sort of wish that the Au'ra had a more equalized height, because while the guys are built like Elezen, the gals are inbetween Miqo'te and Lalafell in height. I understand the two have broadly different appeals, but maybe just having the option, like between Midlander and Highlander Hyur to have a different build that affects more of their general characteristics like height, rather than what color of scales they have so players could enjoy playing as either a more 'cute' male to a more rugged female. I know it would be a lot of work to include this sort of feature and maybe more than a bit unreasonable, and perhaps I am late to the party, but this is something that I hope we could see going forward.

I vaguely recall a possibly giant thread about this back in HW when the race was introduced. It basically boiled down to using the gender differences to allow players to either have a fierce and powerful looking character or something soft and cute. The only complaint I really have at this point is there wasn't a race that essentially flipped this later by having tall fierce powerful looking females with small soft cute males.

Tbh tall Female Au'Ra would just look weird, you'd have to more significantly change their builds.
Their designs lean into cute more heavily than just height and it'd be the same with making short Male Au'Ra their builds and proportions are designed to emphasize them being tall.

While I agree tall, fierce, Au'ra females would've been cool, this is something that would've had to be done back in alpha/early beta of Heavensward.

It's Au Ra though, and I think they look fine.

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Originally Posted by Kolsykol

Tbh tall Female Au'Ra would just look weird, you'd have to more significantly change their builds.
Their designs lean into cute more heavily than just height and it'd be the same with making short Male Au'Ra their builds and proportions are designed to emphasize them being tall.

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That's what the original design for female Au Ra seems to have been. Their early concept art looked a lot fiercer and also more demonic.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/05...c44e50a973.jpg

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

That's what the original design for female Au Ra seems to have been. Their early concept art looked a lot fiercer and also more demonic.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/31/05...c44e50a973.jpg

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You can actually see the more cutsey ones in the middle.
I think people should be a bit careful about pulling up concept art and talking about supposed '' original designs '' tho.

Concept art exists to play around with ideas too, it's like people saying that Ashe in Overwatch was supposed to be black because she was in one of the concepts and that they '' changed her to be white ''.
The truth is that it was simply on the table as one possibility and you can see that the cute Au'Ra that we got were even in those drawings ( and I am like 99% sure that these weren't the only ones ).

On a personal level I actually would've prefered the ones in the upper right corner, they remind me a lot of the Succubus and look pretty Gothic.
I like the idea of fully scaled arms too.

I don't think I'll ever get over the way the devs handled (female) Au Ra, I'm still just as disappointed after all these years.

It wouldn't address their other problems, but at the very least increasing female Au Ra's height range would really not be difficult at all, the only caveat being that they can never be anywhere near as tall as the males because it would look wrong due to the way they were designed. But making them... idk, just below like female Highlander in height would alleviate them looking like a joke next to the male Au Ra quite a bit I think.

This is one of the big reasons I wish they'd overhaul character creation sooner or later... even though they most likely wouldn't change the designs much, if at all. A naive hope...

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

I vaguely recall a possibly giant thread about this back in HW when the race was introduced. It basically boiled down to using the gender differences to allow players to either have a fierce and powerful looking character or something soft and cute. The only complaint I really have at this point is there wasn't a race that essentially flipped this later by having tall fierce powerful looking females with small soft cute males.

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While it's not exactly the flip you're saying, the Viera will fill this gap somewhat. The boys are much shorter than the girls and much more..what's the word.. feminine? than other males.

You aren't the only one, lots of female au ra players want to be taller. There was a huge thread about this in HW and even today you still get complaints about this amongst other things like horns not being decoupled.

Tis no wonder the moment it was discovered modders piled on correcting this making xaelas in particular taller. Gives them the menacing yet good looking look thats missing for females but filled for the menfolk by the au ra.

At the very least, they could change the max height of the female au ra and leave the minimum alone, so those that want to be cutesy lizards can continue to do so while those that want to be tall badass dragon girls can have their fun too.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

While it's not exactly the flip you're saying, the Viera will fill this gap somewhat. The boys are much shorter than the girls and much more..what's the word.. feminine? than other males.

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5 centimetres isn't "much shorter".

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Originally Posted by Recon1o6

At the very least, they could change the max height of the female au ra and leave the minimum alone, so those that want to be cutesy lizards can continue to do so while those that want to be tall badass dragon girls can have their fun too.

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The height slider doesn't change body shape, just makes the whole model larger, so if they have too much size range then they start looking strange and out of proportion with other characters.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The height slider doesn't change body shape, just makes the whole model larger, so if they have too much size range then they start looking strange and out of proportion with other characters.

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There's still quite a bit more leeway than their official height range would lead you to believe. Making them Elezen or even Viera height is definitely out of the question, but between Mid and Highlander, for example? Should totally be doable without it looking weird

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

It wouldn't address their other problems, but at the very least increasing female Au Ra's height range would really not be difficult at all, the only caveat being that they can never be anywhere near as tall as the males because it would look wrong due to the way they were designed. But making them... idk, just below like female Highlander in height would alleviate them looking like a joke next to the male Au Ra quite a bit I think.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

5 centimetres isn't "much shorter".

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The tallest male will still be shorter than the shortest female. So, yeah, if we're comparing them maybe it's not a big difference, but there is a gap.
Unless I am misinformed, in which case I retract the whole thing.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

The tallest male will still be shorter than the shortest female.

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nope! tallest male is around 186cm if i remember right, shortest female is around 178cm! they are about the same height(max female being 5cm taller than max male), which makes also sense lorewise.

Here we go, scaled up based on the proportions of their head! Min height would be between Midlander and Highlander, as I already mentioned, while max height seems to line up with min height Viera!

EDIT: Added the male height chart to the side, for the hell of it. Still much shorter than male Au Ra (and shorter than Midlanders), but looking at it now it really blows my mind how severe the height difference is normally, it's absurd...

https://i.redd.it/lqj9wo9oqhk71.jpg

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Originally Posted by Fukuro

nope! tallest male is around 186cm if i remember right, shortest female is around 178cm! they are about the same height(max female being 5cm taller than max male), which makes also sense lorewise.

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Misinformed it is :) (me, not you guys!)

I'd love to see the Au'Ra in a more 'taller and demonic' looking light with more customization options. When I first joined XIV I didn't know they were supposed to be a dragon-like race because they didn't come across intimidating nor that different from the Miqo'te... Or maybe I'm just unobservant.

I hate how cutsey and 'owo' the girls look compared to the overly edgy blokes, most femra come up to my characters crotch, it is just awkward

The majority of people playing female characters seem to pick short and dainty looking options already, so I think it is pretty much a case of the development team seeking to appeal to the most commonly desired aesthetic.

Female roegadyn are often touted as amazing and valid and the best thing ever on the likes of Reddit and Twitter but in actuality they're the least played race/gender combination in the game.

If we get additional customisation options at a later date, though, then I'd be fine with more options for demonic/draconic aesthetics.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Female roegadyn are often touted as amazing and valid and the best thing ever on the likes of Reddit and Twitter but in actuality they're the least played race/gender combination in the game.

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If we really want to get to the nitty gritty of it, the majority of people who would play femroe but don't (like me) is that SE designs glamour the same way clothing is mass produced. If you aren't slipping your femroe into something very tight or revealing, then you can basically see the Midlander model underneath; as the outfit itself seems to be just scaled larger and not fitted to the nude frame of the Roe. It gets worse when there is any sort of skirt involved. You know how dresses poof around miqo and au ra for a cute aesthetic? Well, look no futher because it's now the size of the room on a femroe! Never mind that the cloth should hang off their hips.

In the case of Au Ra, I don't think we'll ever get better sliders. For any race, either. What I wish SE had done was allow horns to be used with different faces, though. Really sad we lost steam on that ye olde thread.

If female aura were taller and bulkier their popularity would plummet. Most FFXIV, people playing games in general players like small and cutesy. Proof is there for everyone to see.

Also tall aura with current model and animations would just look weird, Uncanny Valley.

It's just echo chambers sites which make these ideas sound popular while in reality they aren't.

I wish you weren't right...

I know it probably wasn't feasible dev resource wise but I wish au ra had gotten a full highlander/midlander type split. With taller, fiercer xaela for both genders, and shorter, cuter raen for both genders. The concept art for female au ra was a lot more interesting than what we got IMO.

It would have been nice to see the original concept of female Au Ra in game, but alas, it was not meant to be. The female Au Ra we have now though is a popular model, so I would only want to have options added, not changed for those that do enjoy it.

That said, depending on the scope of a project as such, it may be similar to adding a new racial model. Perhaps, as Theodric stated, maybe with if we get additional customizations added would we see something, but I imagine that would be smaller in scale than a whole body type. I also agree with Jin- that the current model is as popular as it is, because of its aesthetic niche.

Going to be that person and say that the race name Au Ra, with a space, no apostrophe. ^^;;

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I know it probably wasn't feasible dev resource wise but I wish au ra had gotten a full highlander/midlander type split. With taller, fiercer xaela for both genders, and shorter, cuter raen for both genders. The concept art for female au ra was a lot more interesting than what we got IMO.

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I quite like that male Raen are just as fierce and well-built as their Xaela counterparts, albeit with a more civilised streak to them.

The number of new players I see picking male Raen or Xaela is rather high - at least here on Chaos.

You make it sound as though they're not the exact same model lol

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

You make it sound as though they're not the exact same model lol

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There's subtle differences. Raen have blue tongues, for instance - and the difference in the hue of their scales and horns makes for a rather distinct counter as well. Regional differences are drastic, too. In terms of head canon/role-play opportunities then a Raen hailing from Doma, Werlyt or Hingashi is going to have a different vibe to a Xaela hailing from the Steppes - though the lore makes it clear that Raen aren't exactly weak. They just pick their fights better.

Though even putting all of that aside, the majority of people playing male characters typically lean towards playing male characters that are tall, handsome and masculine.

Whereas the majority of people playing female characters lean towards those that are short, dainty and feminine.

So has it long been the case and will likely always remain as such.

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

You make it sound as though they're not the exact same model lol

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They are, but Raen looks gentle :3

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Originally Posted by Theodric

There's subtle differences. Raen have blue tongues, for instance - and the difference in the hue of their scales and horns makes for a rather distinct counter as well. Regional differences are drastic, too. In terms of head canon/role-play opportunities then a Raen hailing from Doma, Werlyt or Hingashi is going to have a different vibe to a Xaela hailing from the Steppes - though the lore makes it clear that Raen aren't exactly weak. They just pick their fights better.

Though even putting all of that aside, the majority of people playing male characters typically lean towards playing male characters that are tall, handsome and masculine.

Whereas the majority of people playing female characters lean towards those that are short, dainty and feminine.

So has it long been the case and will likely always remain as such.

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Correct, Raen lore (EE2 being the main source) has it that they are praised and desired as warriors within the Far East owing to their martial prowess.

Assuming they did do some form of subrace dimorphism like with Hyur, I'd leave Raen males as they are and maybe let Xaela be a bit bulkier, with some monstrous mutation options. Personally I'd have preferred it if they had rooted their lore to the dragons, with the two subraces linking to Tiamat and Hraesvelgr, or something along those lines. Granted, it wouldn't fit with how they handled things on the First, with exactly the same races but differently named, but I didn't care too much for that in the first place.

For the females, it is a pity they didn't employ a height slider with a wide range like the female Roe one, to allow for shorter options and maybe a height up to female highlander, or thereabouts. Just so you're not forced to pick something so shrimpy.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I know it probably wasn't feasible dev resource wise but I wish au ra had gotten a full highlander/midlander type split. With taller, fiercer xaela for both genders, and shorter, cuter raen for both genders. The concept art for female au ra was a lot more interesting than what we got IMO.

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This would have made so much more sense.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

The number of new players I see picking male Raen or Xaela is rather high - at least here on Chaos.

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I have noticed that male Au Ra, while not as populous as Midlanders or combined Miqo'te, are fairly popular in NA as well. I feel like they were generally not uncommon since HW, but it does feel like there's been an increase of them as of late.

I call that having good taste (but yeah I also feel like there's a lot more around?)

I remember that thread from HW launch - wonder if anyone can find it...would be interesting given this post to see how we all reacted to the dimorphism back then.

The eyes make a huge difference between Raen and Xaela male designs, and the scale colour affects how much they stand out.

Xaela are also more likely to use the glowing limbal ring options so their pupils stand out better against the dark background (and/or it's more obvious than on a Raen), which further makes them look fiercer.

Ah yes, another thing female Au Ra didn't get... though if I'm being honest the dark sclera were kind of half-assed even on male Xaela. No idea why they didn't just make them black?

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

Ah yes, another thing female Au Ra didn't get... though if I'm being honest the dark sclera were kind of half-assed even on male Xaela. No idea why they didn't just make them black?

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I assume they would have played with different degrees of dark colouring in the design process, and settled on what they thought looked best.

I do think the dark sclera should have been a thing for all Xaela though. It doesn't make sense to be a thing for just one gender of one clan. (Likewise for Raen men's inexplicably bright purple mouth.)

Miqo te just called me. They want their Apostroph back!

On Topic:

Overall, I m pretty happy with the Au Ra. I would love if we have the option to have a longer tail, claws and maybe some smaller wings. But to honest, Au Ra not just just Miqo'tes with scales. I like the height difference between males and females. Xaela look more demonic, Raen more dragon-like. And the Design Team took alot effort into creating them. Having those beautifull scales all over the body is something truly unique.

Best. Race. Ever!

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I do think the dark sclera should have been a thing for all Xaela though. It doesn't make sense to be a thing for just one gender of one clan. (Likewise for Raen men's inexplicably bright purple mouth.)

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If anything it really highlights how desperate they were to make female Au Ra as "marketable" as possible... I guess they succeeded, disappointingly enough

The good thing about this game is that you don't need to be tall and ugly like highlanders and roes to be strong.